Everyone has some egg on their face after this morning's breakfast. Or do we?
Eh. Fans can't be held accountable for knowing which of Sybil's 12 personalities (reference alert: Google is your friend) would show up last night. Beaver fans, and their cynicism of a Stanford blowout, are exonerated.
Personally, I'm more disturbed that I've become so emotional about Craig Robinson. I started out loving the guy for his recruiting prowess, then the love turned to anger after his dubious substitution patterns, and now I'm just up and down with every win or loss. It can't be this way…we need to choose sides. I'm withdrawing into the "needs one year with his own recruits" corner and staying there this time, dammit. Anyone have some shackles? Rope would suffice.
So today the Beavs take on Arizona at 2:30pm. The win versus the Wildcats earlier this season will at least remind the Beavs they can in fact beat this opponent. However, the teams took two distinct, divergent paths after that contest. The Beavers became known, nationally, as a dysfunctional mess–a "Bad News Beavers" of sorts–and their demagogue head coach suddenly found himself on the proverbial hot seat alert. Arizona, meanwhile, gelled and went on to win a conference title.
What will matter is how much growth and confidence can be had from a tournament win versus Stanford. Probably not much considering it was an 8 versus 9 game. I'm reminded of a fight I got into as a kid. I was about 5"8 at the time and knocked out a porky, 5"9 bully. Is that really a big deal? Like a zinc penny, it's worth something, but not a whole lot.
What I expect to see tonight is a fatigued Beav squad. We'll probably see more of the dreaded seniors for that reason, and we'll hate on Craig Robinson for it. I also anticipate Arizona getting every borderline call, while the Beavers sink further into madness and get every borderline…personality disorder? Would you like an order of borderline with your schizophrenia this morning, Mister Robinson?
The great thing about mental illness, so I'm told, is that some days you feel fantastic, many times coupled with delusions of grandeur. Come on mania, rear your beautiful head!
I can't believe this is what I'm left rooting for.
Oh well, Go Beavs?
It really doesn’t matter, because we’ve likely got CR for at least another year whether we like it or not. Kick back and watch. The thing that’s so frustrating about him is he does sometimes show flashes of being a very good coach, but it’s always 2 steps forward, then 1 or more steps back.
Meh… I give the coach props for coaching well last night. I do see it being hard for him not to play the seniors because the youth will be gassed. But I would rather just see them in garbage time if that’s the case. This is the team the seniors have created through their leadership (or lack thereof). They can watch a win, or they can come in for the last five minutes to play out their careers. I don’t see Coach Rob passing on the temptation to play them because of the situation. But I can hope. If I’m still upset about them “leading” the team to a curfew violation, I imagine Coach Rob can hold the same grudge.
Am I mean for reporting Willie J Lyles and his “recruiting service” to the Texas Comptroller’s Investigative Division? I mean, he clearly doesn’t charge sales tax for the product he and Nikegon both claim he provided. As I recall (from owning a business in Houston) he should have put “sales tax included” or “all taxes included” somewhere on the invoice if he wasn’t going to break them out on a separate line.
Did you receive a response?
No response yet. But I phrased it in the Texas way. I told them I was sure they were already aware of the situation. But in case they were not, I gave them the Oregonian’s PDF link for Nikegon’s documents showing the PO and Lyles’ invoice. I noted the irregularity of no sales taxes mentioned anywhere on the invoice and hinted at the general irregularity that is Lyles’ business existence. And I finished up with a hint that the great State of Texas could perhaps show the NCAA a thing or two about going after shady tricksters while also helping them out with what should certainly be an easy investigation.
I may be stretching things a bit here, but I believe that the Beavers will be CR’s springboard. Why you say? Mostly because I’m putting a lot of weight on the extraneousness variables outside of basketball. That little thing called “Life”.
We know CR can recruit. Very well! He’s still learning to coach though. Brown wasn’t quite the powerhouse of the basketball world everyone hoped it was, but OSU realized that they had an up and coming coach who was ready for Pac-10 play. Which he most definitely is (Though he’s not Wooden of Lute…yet). He’s still learning just as much as his players are. Which in the big picture, shows his youth as well.
But past history is only a small part of life. Sometimes we get so caught up in the present, that it’s hard to see the future you’re building toward. That’s where I believe the real stretch comes in. A psychological concept called “Transference”.
Defined as: “unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to another”.
Beaver Nation was very excited to boast the acquisition of somebody who had such powerful ties to the White House. It helped with recruiting, showed OSU’s ability to “dream big” while stepping out on a limb, and was generally a nice piece of publicity and banter among fanatics. But it also comes at a price. At least a 4 year term I predict.
What do I mean? Picture this. How frequently do you talk with your family? Siblings specifically? Holidays, birthdays, reunions, big events? Some of us weekly or more? I believe that CR’s life has more on his plate than Beaver Nation want’s to acknowledge. All of the politics and strife that he goes through during the basketball season have to be exponentially magnified when you look at the transference that he takes from his sister and brother-in-law. Now don’t get me wrong, he’s no where near as important as the President of the United States, but he hears about and knows a lot more of it than any of us would ever like to. That’s gotta be taxing on anybody who already has a full time gig. Look at how grey Obama has already grown.
So what I’m mostly getting at is what we’ve all been saying already. CR needs a chance to prove himself with a full roster of his guys. He needs time to grow and change with them. He needs Beaver Nation to allow him the ups and downs, ebbs and flows that come with any big time coaching career. Mostly he needs this ADHD world to understand that people project their concerns and problems on him sometimes as an outlet for immediate change. Sorta like some who’ve gotten so sick of the football world that they transfer and hold an entirely different program accountable for Riley’s problems?
I believe CR will find a way to win over the next few seasons and grow tremendously as a coach. He’ll build our program back up to national prominence. Then someone else will snag him away because he’ll be tired of all the troubles with not winning the Big Dance that the fans hold him accountable for (and the bigger paycheck). But fear not Beaver Nation! With our program revived, we will bring in a new coach with a better foundation and a storied history!! Famous players will continue to make appearances on the sidelines and donations to our pocketbooks! Hey, maybe we’ll even make the Final Four?!!? That is if we don’t crucify the new guy and run him out of town for not meeting our unrealistic expectations.
Go Beavs!!
What unrealistic expectations?
Like beating Texas Southern, Utah Valley State, or Seattle? Like getting to an NIT instead of a buy-in tournament that crowns the 96th best team #1? I think we all have realistic expectations. Based on the past two years, expectations for year three should have been an NIT appearance.
Four or five seasons is about as much as anybody gets this day and age. He still hasn’t done what Jay John did (plus .500 record, NIT bid). I am not so sure the talent he is recruiting is good enough to get into the upper half of the P-10. I guess that will be his task next year if he can do it.
Timeline: CR was hired on 07 April 2008. Obama wasn’t elected president until November. In April 2008, there was no assurance he would be elected president. As I recall the poll numbers were close. Had the primaries even concluded? I have no opinion about the OSU/Obama connection since Obama was elected, but I regret that there are still those who conclude that was the very reason CR was hired.
Cal Football is working hard on the recruiting front. Are they a big worry in the Pac-12 North, or is it just Oregon?
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/football/news/story?id=6190410
If Littlewood and/or Brill are refs in this game, then it’s over before it begins. They were both on the floor for the game against Seattle, and that was so poorly refereed that it actually won the game for Seattle. Brill has been better but still not good during Beavs games over the course of the season. And Littlewood led the crew when we played at Arizona. That Arizona game was really lopsided in the Cats’ favor. If you disagree, then I need to point out two plays which were the most egregious calls I’ve seen this year.
One was a play following a Derrick Williams tip to himself on an offensive board. The ball was going out of bounds, so Williams hustled to catch it and throw it off of Brandt’s legs. What was missed by the ref standing three feet from the play (and the announcers I guess) was something I saw as plain as daylight in real time and was confirmed by my DVR thingy. Williams was actually standing out of bounds on one foot before he threw the ball off Brandt. He even hesitated after the play, because I’m sure he knew the call was going against him. Brandt also pointed to the floor where Williams was standing, but I guess he thought it wasn’t worth the argument.
The next was the break away dunk by Kevin Parrom with 1:50 left in the first half. He got the ball at the timeline, took two dribbles, and he clearly took three full steps before he dunked it. And it wasn’t even an NBA allowed three steps. It was a stretch to make it before a hustling Cunningham could get to the play.
What’s sad is that the Pac 10 is one of the better officiated leagues in the nation. But the NBA notion of star-favored calls and the “just let them play” mentality makes the game almost unwatchable. Last night’s game was called pretty well. Carries and walks were called, and contact was only called when it was initiated and followed through by one party. There was no jumping into the defender and twisting while hoping for a call under the hoop on either side. Even Cunningham’s block to end the game was called correctly. There was a SJ Mercury article which quoted Green as saying something to the effect like “he got part of my hand”. But I got news for you Jeremy. The hand is a part of the ball when it’s actually on the ball.
Wildly optimistic note: We can still have a winning season. All we have to do is win the NCAA Tourney. How hard can that be?
nice i thought i was the only one who made sybil references
But I thought Sybil had 16 personalities, not 12.
does anyone know if there is a website streaming this game?
Craig’s teams play fairly decently in the Pac-10 Tournament. They should have beaten Washington last year if not for a meltdown. Then Washington went on to win the conference tournament and make it to the sweet 16. I’m not going to count out the Beavers and say they will be blown out. I believe they will actually come out and go toe to toe with Arizona. If they can actually consistently make their threes and free throws I think they win this game. Unfortunately I think they won’t make their free throws and be inconsistent from three. They will keep it close but Arizona will hang on.
Prediction Arizona 69- Oregon State 64
Atleast we won a game in the tourney this year.
Hope for a good game and alot of fight from the team to make us proud.
Prediction:
Arizona 76 OSU 62
Haynes and Wallace are going to play. Unbelievable. Craig keeps making the same mistake over and over. Don’t understand why he would play them. They hurt the team, they don’t help them. Arizona will win by 20 now. If they didn’t play it would be close but since they are they don’t have a shot.
http://azstarnet.com/sports/blogs/pascoe/article_d3e7d6e4-4ae3-11e0-9842-001cc4c03286.html
You had to figure they’d play since there will be fatigue issues. Hopefully they don’t play a lot and/or play well for the (hopefully) few minutes they’re in there.
I agree with angry. I don’t mind them playing as long as they are the 4th and 5th options at guard. If AZ plays Williams at the 4 I hope the Beaver play 3 guard.
They won’t be a 4th or 5th option, we know that. Haynes will play 25+ and Roberto will see his minutes shrink to about 10. If the game is close I will be shocked now. Craig can’t help himself.
We’ll see. There’s playing time, and there’s spelling the others. I heard a lot of complaining about Starks coming out after his first half run. But he was tired after expending a lot of energy on defense as well as offense. His man-on defense was just fun to watch while he was harassing Mann and especially Green deep in the back court.
If Haynes and Wallace come in and play well, they can get some decent (five or six) minutes in either half. Haynes has shown that his best value is in crunch time, so we could see him at the end as well. Don’t ask me why Calvin decides to show up at the end of games. He just does, and it’s maddening.
I don’t think we can have both of them in at the same time though.
I’m watching the pre-game now, and they have a big to-do for Derrick Williams. I wonder if Eric Moreland will be like Williams is now. I think he has the tools if he puts some meat on his bones.
what position do you think Williams plays in the NBA?
He’ll be a tweener 3/4… probably more of a 4 when he fills in.
yeah… that is his major knock… “no real NBA position”.
What this link/article points out is that Altman had a plan. He adjusted. If Robinson makes adjustments he never mentions them in his statements – we only get in-depth counseling. I sometimes feel that CR writes his game plans in stone. No matter what adjustments need to be made – and it seems to me it’s fairly easy in bb – he can’t/doesn’t counter.
Will we bother to have a “strategy” to snuff out the three point shot or are we just going to lay back and let them shoot at will and watch them collect the long rebounds the few times they do miss? If we have something in mind to prevent them from getting hot and destroying us from long range, then we have a legit shot!
Precisely what happened.
Any stream available?
Offense looks pretty good. Brandt needs to start being a presence defensively. He looks so worried about committing a foul that he just lets guys lay it up. He needs to start blocking some shots.
Announcers “Beavers are a good defensive team” Ummm…..we are lol?
No stream?
Omari Johnson is being weak on the boards. He’s too passive and letting Williams grab offensive rebounds.
Of course Haynes enters the game and kicks the ball out of bounds after the Beavers got a stop.
the cancer is back.
Haynes making an early bid for the women’s soccer team
Haynes proving he’s horrible.
I wish Johnson wasn’t playing. He’s been atrocious
Waiting for Lathen Wallace to come in so the seniors can strike together and give Zona a big lead
Haynes may have played the worst 3 minutes in the history of the conference tournament
poor guy… maybe some team in Eastern Europe or Chine will let him try out or something.
The Beavers just have to make the simple play. They’re trying too hard to make some brilliant pass. Just make the simple play and they will be alright.
Box score says the Beavers have just 8 turnovers. Seems more like 12. If the Beavers actually play defense in the second half and make someone else besides Williams beat them, they have a shot.
Another miss by Johnson. Ugh
He’s the worst player I’ve seen. He can’t play defense, shoot, make lay-ins or do really anything positive.
well, I’ve seen enough. Back-to-back-to-back 3’s from UA to start the 2nd half. Sandwich in 3 missed layups from us. Why is Anus Brandt in there? He’s about as worthless as McShane
who are they supposed to play?
Hard to win when so many players have been awful. Cunningham has been fantastic everyone else has been bad for the most part.
Beavers look their legs are dead. They can’t even make a free throw.
Bloody hell! Which is worse? 1 – layup – no good but he was fouled, or
2 – wide-open three. (that’s always the other team)
On the other hand, they must be very tired – Jared Cunningham is pretty amazing
The guys that have been playing a ton of minutes are exhausted but guys like Collier who has had plenty of rest today has no excuse. He’s been a liability, same with Brandt. They needed to play well and they haven’t shown up.
This happens over and over, and I don’t understand why: Player X for the opponent drives into the lane. 3 Beavers are standing there to defend, but not a single one puts their arms up.
I see it about ten times per game.
Similar with rebounds…sometimes the ball will be bouncing right in front of a player, and he won’t move to pick it up. I saw Omari Johnson do this at least twice today.
How does Craig not teach them proper technique. He’s suppose to be a good defensive coach yet they have horrible defensive habits.
Parrom needs to grow a set. He acted like he was shot. It didn’t hurt that badly.
Joe deserved to be ejected for the hit, but what was missed was that Parrom hit Joe in the nuts, turned around and gave him an elbow to the chest before Joe finally reacted.
Parrom is a coward. He has cheap-shotted numerous players this year and then flops whenever someone gets physical. Joe should have punched him in the face
Isn’t amazing that lay-ups are the difference in this game? Beavers might be leading if they made their layups
Nothin’ new. Ugh
With 2 minutes to go, if you looked at the stats you’d think it was closer. Each team shooting about 50%. No turnovers. AZ has mild edge on rebounding (27 and 34).Free throws about even. Difference is AZ 3 pointers = 11 and Beavs 7. There’s the 10 point difference. I am assuming Beavs are playing zone.
Of course the Beavers have played that shut down zone all game long that we all love.
Wow Craig brings all the seniors in the end and Haynes airballs a lay-up and then Wallace and Haynes turn it over.
Free throw not lay-up.
I am somewhat optimistic on the future. Hopefully Nelson doesn’t transfer. I think this group could make a decent tourney run in a couple of years. I am sure we will get a chance to see what Rob can do unless someone is planning on donating a ton of money.
Yup, CR will be here at least till his contract runs out, a finish in the top 3 would probably get him an extension, UGH.
Wow our seniors are terrible. Watching the young guys step up in the tournament makes me excited for next year. I’ve been excited for the last 2 seasons but next year were finally cancer free. Haynes and Wallace have to be the worst senior “leaders” any team has ever had. I just hope they haven’t rubbed off on the younger players too much. Starks, Collier, and Cunningham have showed they are legit players. I’m hoping Nelson can take a big step forward with increased minutes next year. The big men will have to improve if this team really wants to make noise, but we should finish in the top half of the standings. I may be way too optimistic on this though.
Have to remember Moreland will be back next season. He can score in the paint and block some shots. Him and Collier together will be dynamic. Collier will be better and will develop better offensively. Hopefully he can get better at the free throw line and score some that way. Starting lineup next year should Starks-Nelson-Cunningham-Collier-Moreland. Burton and Brandt should be the main bigs off the bench. Gomis will play but not much IMO. Rhys Murphy if he can stay healthy would be a nice wing off the bench. They need another guard off the bench though.
That team should be really good. If they aren’t at worst in the NIT it will be an extreme disappointment. I would say the future is bright as long as Craig doesn’t somehow screw it up.
Roberto looked bad in the tourney. He has a decent outside shot yet when he was even open he looked like he had no interest ins shooting from outside at a point where we needed another three and someone else beside Starks stepping in and hitting one when open would have helped. I was watching and thinking..”I would rather take a good look at a 3 then force some dumb pass and get no shot and a turnover.” Berto didn’t really act like he had his head fully into the opportunity today. Glad Cunningham played well and Starks amde some..but honestly Starks did not shoot a good percentage in total…its just hardly anybody else besides occassionally Jared would shoot from outside. Maybe when we get the basketball practice facility modeled after the University of Florida’s we can learn to make the most out of opportunites and take the program above CBI level. We weren’t even there this year and it seems like Craig will be fortunate if we ever make the NIT. We aren’t anywhere near consistent enough on offense and look like we don’t know what we want to do half the time. I would like to see motion done and drives started where the goal is to get a 3 point shooter some good open looks and into rythym. Then a better way to get some higher quality inside looks as well. Burton doesn’t have enough touch to make over 40% of his shots from down there though so we almost have to drive and dish and hope an easier Collier layup or something happens or a kick out for shooters. Nelson has to be more involved in making 3-5 jumpers every game though. Oh well. Lets hope we can find some consistency next year along with the will to win.
If we would have started the year with the same rotation we ended with, we would be playing in the NIT this year. We would probably have 19-20 wins, but we had such a weak non-con schedule that we wouldn’t get any looks. CU and Montana are the only good teams we played.
That brings me to another point of extreme humor. Andy Katz gushed about Ron Wellman’s direct honesty in firing Dino Gaudio last year.
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/katz_andy/id/5067873
I guess it’s fair enough after your team loses in the second round of the Tourney.
But Katz never followed up on the move. Many other confused writers did, but never Katz. And it was as close to divine providence for CU as reality gets, because Wellman paid CU a buy-out clause for the train wreck of a coach which is Jeff Bzdelik. Wake went from 20-11 (61-31 under Gaudio in three years), in the Tourney for the second straight year, and an AD whining about losing games in said Tourney… to 8-24 and glad that the season is over.
Hopefully age equals improvement. This team always got burned by those five or six point swings where a Beaver missed a layup and the other team drained a wide open three. I guess it is bound to play out that way when you are the worst shooting team AND the poorest team at defending the three in the league. I hope those type of swings start going the Beavs way next year.
I’m sure you guys saw, but Oregon crushed UCLA by ~20…
Get a baseball write-up going please. College basketball is dead to me now. Thank you Beavers and CR for making me hate college basketball season.
What can we expect from New Mexico? VMI?
Funny, I just finished my writeup.
Beavers have the potential and the athletes to go all the way but if you are not coached right then you have no will to win! You cant continue to make the same substitutions and the do the same defense if it is not effective. Any game is not the same you have to go with the flow of it. Sometimes change is hard but almost necessary. Throughout the season I saw a lot of premature mistakes and I feel improvement is around the corner. This is a young team feeling each other out and next year they will be unstoppable, but CR has to contribute and coach! Try man on man defensive, try running some offensive plays. Work on the basics Layups, Rebounding and FREE THROWS! And I would love CR to stop messing up the momentum of the game. Leave in the players that are hot in steals, rebounding, scoring anything that is getting us up in score. This team can be so amazing but they need the fire and the intensity to win it!! Im a Beaver fan and this season was heartbreaking to watch, especially to see so much talent on floor and not playing up to their abilities if they just had positive reinforcement. I know next year it will be a fantastic season.
Where is the 2011 OSU preseason analysis? I have my own for Gtech – They stink